Tag Archives: Selwyn R. Cudjoe

De Prime Minister Eh Dey

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 20, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI have never accepted V. S. Naipaul’s description of our society as being half-made or our people as mimic men and women. Some years ago, I wrote a trenchant criticism of Naipaul’s work in which I responded to those designations in an effective manner. For the past three weeks, I have been traveling in Germany and England. As I view our political landscape from afar, I cannot help but get the impression that our Prime Minister is playing dolly house with our people’s future; fiddling around which their good nature; and treating them with a contempt they do not deserve.
Continue reading De Prime Minister Eh Dey

Looking Backward

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 11, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeKarl Hudson Philip’s brilliant advocacy for a respect of legal tradition and his reminder that standards ought to be adhered to touched an important note in Trinidad and Tobago’s psyche. Reading Hudson Philip, I was reminded of a time when things were simpler, standards were more transparent and justice [or perhaps consistency] was among desired outcomes. One stands amazed as one contrasts the legal maneuverings of Ish and Steve, the shenanigans of Calder Hart and Laurence Duprey, and the audacity of Harrynarine of the Hindu Credit Union with the behavior of British officials during the days of slavery.
Continue reading Looking Backward

Keeping Faith with Our Destiny

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
January 04, 2012

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSome time this month, Linius Rogers’s motion that instructs the male members of PNM to wear their balisier ties in Parliament, municipal and city bodies and at official functions will come up at the PNM General Council for a discussion and a vote. As a member of the PNM, I support this motion unreservedly because it is a way to keep us true to our roots and a sign that we are a distinct political formation in Trinidad and Tobago.
Continue reading Keeping Faith with Our Destiny

Don’t Piss On Me…

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 27, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am not a lawyer, I know nothing about legalese, but I do know when shit stinks and barely literate politicians tell me that I needn’t worry because they have the nation’s best interest at heart. Do I really have to believe the AG when he says that in making his decision about Ish and Steve that his only concern is that justice is served? Ah mean, is it that I have become so bey bey that I don’t know when someone is pissing on me even as he insists that it’s raining bucket ah drop. Ok, I stole this phrase from the title of Judge Judy’s book which reads “Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining” but the intent is the same: stop all this legal chicanery and respect the public’s point of view.
Continue reading Don’t Piss On Me…

Christmas Truce

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 20, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere were smiles galore; enough to fill the entire room and a little left over for langniappe. There, boldface in the front page of the Mirror (and the Guardian too) was Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of the country, in the tender embrace (or so it seemed to me) of Maxie Cuffie, the publisher and CEO of the Mirror. Another shot showed Wade Mark, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, clasping Cuffie’s hands with a broad smile on his face with Timothy Hamel-Smith, President of the Senate, equally gleeful, overseeing the tete-a-tete.
Continue reading Christmas Truce

The Prime Minister as Goddess

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 13, 2011

Annabella stocking want patching
She want de doctah to help she with dat
Johnson trousers falling
He want de doctor help he wid dat
Some want a zephyr motor car
Others want a piece of land
[Now] Dorothy loss she man
She want to complain to Doctoh Williams.

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 1958, as the demands upon Dr. Eric Williams grew, the Mighty Striker penned “Don’t Blame de PNM” in which he elevated Dr. Williams to the status of godhead. Dr. Williams may have been ironic in quoting this poem in his autobiography. However, Striker was on target when he satirized the fickleness of our people’s understanding of government when he observed that even when yo’ lose yo’ man, yo expect the prime minister to help yo’ with dat.
Continue reading The Prime Minister as Goddess

The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 06, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeWe didn’t have to wait until the Prime Minister declared an official end to the state of emergency to realize that it was ill-advised, ill-timed and disingenuous. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear have come to the realization that what began as a farce ended up as a comedy of errors with rotten eggs splattered on the Government’s face and even greater opprobrium cast upon their name. Ah mean, they couldn’t even carry off this jokey maneuver with a modicum of humor.
Continue reading The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight

Let the Jackasses Bray

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 29, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThere is blindness among the leaders of the UNC government that will lead to its demise. Overconfident by the results of May 2010, it refuses to see that its victory was not so much an affirmation of their prospective policies (which were ill-thought out at best) but a refusal of citizens to accept what Mr. Manning and his team were doing. In rejecting PNM the electorate stated categorically that they were against Manning’s increasingly tendencies of one-manism, his refusal to listen to others; and his knee-jerk support of Calder Hart whose practices left many persons uncomfortable.
Continue reading Let the Jackasses Bray

Homecoming: Bahia 2011

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 22, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeFor the past week I have been visiting Salvador, Bahia, Brazil as a guest of the FUNAG, an independent foundation of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. I was invited to participate in AfroXX1, a celebration of the United Nations “Year of the People of African Descent”; my having written a chapter in African Heritage in the making of National Identity in Brazil and the Caribbean, a book that was commissioned for the event. My contribution is entitled: “African Heritage in the Making of the Trinidad and Tobago’s Identity.”
Continue reading Homecoming: Bahia 2011

Sat and Devant on the Saddle

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 15, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSat and Devant riding high on de saddle now and dey driving a hard bargain. Many who voted for the UNC never expected them to thrust Sat and Devant on we with such force, guns ablazing. Even those who refused to vote (and I am culpably in this regard), are feeling uneasy about what is happening in the country. However, I do not think those who voted for UNC and those who abstain should feel badly. They did the correct thing in telling Patrick Manning that he had gone too far and had to be restrained. That is the essence of democracy. Whenever things go out of whack, a countervailing force always steps in to correct the excesses of any party. Silvio Berlusconi who ruled Italy supreme for seventeen years is gone. Muamar Gaddafi ruled Libya for forty two years. He’s gone. As my mamma used to say, “Nothing lasts forever.”
Continue reading Sat and Devant on the Saddle